Winnovation competes in Peoria; Qualifies for World Championship with grants from ThermoFisher, NASA

WINNEBGAO SCHOOL DISTRICT PHOTO The Gazette
The Winnovation team will compete at the Midwest Regional April 8-9 in Chicago.

For the past eight weeks, Winnovation has been hard at work designing, manufacturing, and programming a robot for this year’s FIRST Robotics Competition game: Rapid React.

The weekend of March 18, they competed at the Central Illinois Regional. As the first pick of the eighth alliance, they went up against the first alliance but, sadly, were eliminated in the quarterfinals.

While there, Winnovation won the Engineering Innovation award, an award that emphasizes a team’s efforts in creating respect for STEM within their community.

This gave them a ticket to go to the World Championship in Houston, Texas and the registration fee being paid for by NASA.

In addition, the team will receive a $10,000 grant from ThermoFisher. The grant comes to the team in memory of Lisa Leahr, a ThermoFisher employee whose son is a member of the Winnovation. The team will compete at the Midwest Regional April 8-9 in Chicago. There will be 50 teams from three different countries competing.

With the season nearing its end, Winnovation would like to thank all their sponsors, supporters, and administration for the support.